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Ohio’s infant-mortality rate — already 11th worst in the nation — inched up to 7.9 per 1,000
live births in 2011, according to preliminary data announced today during the state’s first summit
to address the problem.

The rate, which had been 7.7 per 1,000 live births the previous year, rose at a time when
infant-mortality rates in many states are dropping. It’s the highest since 2005, though it remains
significantly below the infant-mortality rates of several decades ago.

But the new data are bleaker for black infants. The death rate was 15.8 per 1,000 live births
last year, up from 15.5 the previous year. That puts Ohio on course to have one of the highest — if
not the highest — infant-mortality rates among black children, said Dr. Arthur James, an
obstetrician and gynecologist at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.

“The disparity between us and the rest of the nation is getting worse,” James told about 900
people gathered at the Columbus Convention Center.

James and other speakers said it will be necessary for society in its entirety — not just
clinicians — to work to lower the rate in Ohio, which he called the “caboose” in making strides to
lower infant-mortality rates.

Infant mortality is a measure of community health that includes the deaths of all babies who
don’t reach their first birthday. Ohio had 1,088 infant deaths in 2011, James said.

“Failure is not an option,” he said to applause. “We will not allow our babies to continue to
die at this rate.”